The historically first conference dedicated to the issue of highly hazardous persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in Turkey took place at the end of December in Istanbul.
In its organising, there participated Turkish non-governmental organisations Association of Physicians for the Environment of Turkey - APET and Bumerang in co-operation with the International POPs Elimination Network - IPEN, Czech association Arnika, and Regional Environmental Center (REC). On the conference, a representative of the Ministry of Forests and the Environment of the Republic of Turkey announced that the Ministry had just started the process of the Stockholm Convention ratification. This Convention should lead to a world-wide elimination of POPs in the environment. Nongovernmental organisations consider this step as the their first big success this year and started to campaign against pollution by toxic substances, such as dioxins, DDT, or brominated flame retardants in Turkey. The Arnika Association helped to start the campaign as IPEP regional hub.
